Arizona executions, from hanging to gas to lethal injection
The execution of an Arizona inmate on Tuesday evening came after a brief battle in federal court over concerns that a drug used in the lethal injection might not be up to snuff, possibly causing convicted murderer Jeffrey Landrigan to suffer a cruel death.
Such concerns were why Arizona voters adopted lethal injection in the first place, in 1992. It happened after the gas-chamber execution of Donald Eugene Harding left witnesses shaken, including one television-news anchor who called it barbaric.
Harding's execution in April 1992 was the first in Arizona in 29 years.
Harding wanted to go quickly, according to witness accounts. He appeared to inhale deeply, breathing in the gas. He also defiantly raised his middle fingers in a final salute.
But Harding did not go quickly. His body convulsed, witnesses said, and he gasped and choked for 10 minutes.
Media representatives who witnessed the event held a news conference to describe what they saw. Cameron Harper, then a news anchor at Channel 3 (KTVK-TV), said dogs were put to death more humanely than Harding was. He was not alone in his description of the execution, or in decrying it. But his platform as an anchorman gave his words added weight.
A reporter for The Arizona Republic said Harding experienced "violent trembling" at the beginning of the execution. A Tucson newspaper reporter said Harding's body "turned a bright red, almost purple, as he clenched and convulsed in obvious pain."
Ralph Fowler, Harding's minister and witness to the execution, described it as "surreal or nightmarish."
"The question we must ask ourselves is, 'Are we looking for justice, or are we looking for vengeance?' " he said.
Of course, that was the question Arizona had asked decades before, when it made lethal gas the method of execution, replacing the noose.
The execution that prompted that change was the hanging of Eva Dugan, the only woman to receive the death penalty in Arizona. Dugan, who had murdered a rancher, faced the gallows at the State Prison in Florence in February 1930. She told the guards leading her to the noose to not hold her so tightly. She didn't want people to think she was afraid to meet her fate.
The trap door was released, Dugan plunged through it and the rope snapped off her head, which rolled into a corner.
A horrified public demanded a change. By 1934, Arizona abandoned the gallows in favor of the gas chamber.
Fifty-six years later, Harding's execution prompted the state to change its method again.
The outcry over Harding's death brought renewed interest in a bill that had been introduced in the Legislature to change the method of execution to lethal injection. Within weeks, the measure had cleared the Legislature and was sent to the November 1992 ballot for approval. It passed by a large margin.
The first man to face lethal injection was John George Brewer in March 1993. A Republic reporter who witnessed the execution described it as "eerily efficient."
http://www.azcentral.com/travel/arti...injection.html
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